1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to linear bamboo fibers, processes of preparing them, and processes of using them as structural cores in circumferentially wound vessels such as pipes and tanks and solid load-bearing structures such as utility poles, pilings, and columns.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional pipes made of clay or iron have relatively short life spans. Clay and iron have been replaced by, stronger and longer-lasting fiberglass products.
Hollow, wound products such as pipes and tanks are currently manufactured by pulling glass fibers which have been treated in a resin bath around rotating mandrels. The resulting product can be of greatly varying diameters and capable of withstanding substantial internal pressures. Very large amounts of pressure pipes are used throughout the world for drinking water, oil pipelines, waste water, sewage, and natural gas. Solid, uncored composite pipe is very heavy and quite expensive. These disadvantages become more apparent in the manufacture of large storage tanks, which may be over 100 feet in diameter due to their relatively thick wall cross-sections.
The prior art is aware of coating bamboo poles with plastic. Thus, U.S. Pat. No. 4,774,906 teaches a process for coating bamboo poles with plastics in order to protect and improve the appearance of the poles. No utility is proposed for the resulting polymer-coated bamboo poles and this patent fails to disclose pretreating the bamboo poles with a binder to improve the adhesion of the polymer to the bamboo poles.